Today, On April 29th, The Supreme Court scheduled a hearing for July 30 to address appeals challenging the acquittal of Surendra Koli in the 2006 Nithari serial killings case. The bench stated, “It’s not likely to be over today.”
New Delhi: The Supreme Court scheduled a hearing for July 30 regarding the appeals challenging the acquittal of Surendra Koli in the 2006 Nithari serial killings case.
The appeals were presented before a bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih.
The counsel for one of the petitioners described the case as a “dastardly crime,” noting that skeletal remains of several children were discovered. In response, Koli’s lawyer argued that the case relied solely on circumstantial evidence, lacking any eyewitness testimony.
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When inquiring about the duration needed for arguments, the bench remarked,
“It is not likely to be over today,”
And subsequently scheduled the matter for July 30.
Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to consider various separate pleas, including those filed by the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh government, challenging the Allahabad High Court’s October 16, 2023 decision to acquit Koli.
One of the appeals was submitted by the father of one of the victims, contesting the high court’s ruling.
Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic helper Koli were accused of raping and murdering individuals, primarily children from their neighbourhood in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh. Koli received a death sentence from the trial court on September 28, 2010.
However, the high court set-aside the death penalty for both Pandher and Koli, stating that the prosecution failed to establish their guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” and characterized the investigation as a “botched up” effort.
The high court’s ruling reversed Koli’s death sentence in 12 cases and Pandher’s in two, criticizing the probe as “nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies.”
The high court accepted multiple appeals from both Koli and Pandher, who challenged the death sentences imposed by a CBI court in Ghaziabad.
A total of 19 cases were filed against the pair in 2007, with the CBI eventually submitting closure reports in three cases due to insufficient evidence. Koli was acquitted in three of the 16 remaining cases, and his death sentence in one case was commuted to life imprisonment.
The shocking killings uncovered when the skeletal remains of eight children found in a drain behind Pandher’s residence in Nithari, Noida, near the national capital, on December 29, 2006.
Further excavation and searches in the drains around the area led to the discovery of additional skeletal remains, most of which belonged to impoverished children and young women who had gone missing from the area. Within 10 days, the CBI took over the investigation, leading to the recovery of more remains.
Pandher and Koli faced charges of rape and murder, receiving death penalties for the crimes which deeply shocked the nation due to the horrifying nature of the assaults, vicious killings, and indications of potential cannibalism.
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